Rima is a Senior Policy Advisor at the U.S. Department of Energy. She focuses on energy commercialization, policy analysis, finance and market development to accelerate cost effective investment in grid modernization and energy security for critical infrastructure, such as water and waste water facilities, hospitals, light rail, port authorities, airports, and military bases. Rima has expertise working with the private capital providers and, federal, state and local governments to develop public private partnerships to incorporate innovative finance strategies. Examples of recent infrastructure projects include NJ TransitGrid, a 100+ MW $600 M advance microgrid to power NJ Transit and Amtrak in the northeast corridor, and the $210 M NJ Energy Resilience Bank which will deploy distributed energy resources and dynamic microgrids to protect critical infrastructure and modernize the grid.
Rima previously served on the Hurricane Sandy Task Force where she was the energy lead providing technical, strategic, and financial support for infrastructure deployment initiatives in the affected states and developed a report to the President with recommendations for energy resilience. At the DOE, Rima led the development of a $600 million portfolio by working closely with states to create energy financing programs and state energy banks to support lending in residential, public, and commercial markets. She also provided financial assistance to DOD on their 3GW initiative.
Prior to joining the DOE, Rima spent a decade working in private equity, real-estate, and management consulting. During Rima’s tenure in private sector finance, she evaluated and led investment opportunities as well as deployment strategies in alternative energy companies such as solar, biofuels, manufacturing of solid state lighting, and water purification for early stage to late stage companies. Rima earned an MBA from the University Of Chicago Booth School Of Business with concentrations in Finance, Strategy, and Entrepreneurship. Rima also holds a Bachelors of Science from the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana. Rima lives in Northern Virginia with her husband Carl, son Amir, daughter Aliya, dog Juno, and tortoise Ollie.
Local governments, military officials, university heads, utilities, water and waste facilities, as well as executives overseeing hospitals, transit, airports, and port authorities are exploring the feasibility of microgrids to provide resilience and save on operations. This session will provide an introduction to microgrids, by defining what is and what is not a microgrid, and by describing market drivers and applications. Microgrid market segments, potential revenue streams, and public private partnerships opportunities will also be discussed. This presentation covers some of the key take-aways covered in the microgrid guide, developed by Rima Oueid, a Senior Advisor at the U.S. Department of Energy. The microgrid guide was intended for owners and operators of such operations who seek the resilience, economic, or environmental benefits of public infrastructure microgrids. This guide was inspired by the experiences of states affected by Hurricane Sandy, such as New Jersey and New York. High winds, coastal flooding, and other hazards of the “superstorm” caused damage that cost the federal government $50 billion to restore.
